Research and Working Papers

This page describes my ongoing research projects. Please feel free to contact me if you would like any additional information about these items.

Project 1: The Causes and Consequences of International Cooperation in Nuclear Energy.

•“Atomic Assistance: The Causes and Consequences of Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation.” Book Manuscript.

Table of Contents

The book manuscript explores the causes and consequences of international cooperation in nuclear energy using new data on more than 2,000 nuclear cooperation agreements that have been signed since 1950. The first portion explores the relationship between nuclear energy cooperation and nuclear weapons proliferation. The findings presented in this section reveal that countries receiving peaceful nuclear assistance are more likely to begin weapon programs, acquire the bomb, and have larger nuclear arsenals once they cross the nuclear threshold. Given the relationship between nuclear weapons and civilian cooperation, the second part of this project seeks to explain why suppliers provide civilian nuclear assistance to other states. The argument is that supplier states use civilian nuclear cooperation as an instrument of their grand strategies. This leads to several hypotheses, including that military alliances and having a shared enemy increase the probability of nuclear commerce while militarized conflict reduces it. A further caveat to the argument is that when the price of oil is high, suppliers have a tendency to swap nuclear technology for oil with petrol-producing countries.

•“Exporting Mass Destruction: The Determinants of Dual-Use Trade.” 2008. Journal of Peace Research 45(5).

•“Taking a Walk on the Supply Side: The Determinants of Civilian Nuclear Cooperation.” Invited to Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Conflict Resolution.

•“Proliferation and Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreements.” Under Review.

•“Atoms for Terror: Civilian Nuclear Cooperation and Nuclear/Radiological Terrorism,” with Bryan Early and Quan Li. Under Review.

• “Oil for Nukes,” Christian Science Monitor, February 29, 2008.

Project 2: Legalization and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

•“Following START: Risk Acceptance and the 1991-92 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives,” with Bryan Early. 2008. Foreign Policy Analysis 4:1.

•“Making 1540 Work: Achieving Universal Compliance with Nonproliferation Export Control Standards.” 2007. World Affairs 169.

•“Cheating Honestly: Exit and Predation in the Nonproliferation Regime,” with Jeffrey Berejikian. Under Review.

•“Legalizing Nuclear Abandonment: The Determinants of Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty Membership,” with Xiaojun Li. Manuscript. A version of this paper was published as a Managing the Atom Working Paper, Harvard University in March 2008.

Project 3: Preventive Uses of Force and Nuclear Weapons Development

•“The (F)utility of Attacks Against Nuclear Programs: A Comparative Analysis of the Universe of Cases, 1942-2007,” with Sarah Kreps. Under Review.

•“Targeting Nuclear Programs in War and Peace,” with Sarah Kreps. Manuscript.

Project 4: Territorial Disputes and Domestic Armed Conflict

•“Territorial Dimensions of Enduring Internal Rivalries,” with Jaroslav Tir. Invited to Revise and Resubmit, Conflict Management and Peace Science.

•“Bringing Territory Back: Territorial Disputes and Domestic Armed Conflict,” with Jaroslav Tir. Manuscript.